YW Manual 3 Lesson 5- Creating a Spiritual Environment in the Home

(Handout by mydigital creations.blogspot.com)

I ended up not teaching this lesson at the last minute because we were out of town, so the YW President taught it for me.
I was planning on using the talk "Be Thou an Example of the Believers" by Ann M. Dibb (April 2009, Conference Address)
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Thinking back to when I was a young woman, I recognize that I did not understand the magnitude of what was happening in my life. I did not realize that my participation in each and every Church activity was helping me develop a lifelong pattern and commitment to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I didn’t understand that I was being prepared for my future life as an individual, a wife, a mother, and a leader. I didn’t understand that as I tried to choose the right, I was honoring my baptismal covenants, exercising faith, increasing my virtue, and preparing to go to the temple. I couldn’t see all of this then, but in very small, incremental steps, I was becoming a believer—and “an example of the believers.”

Exerpts from the lesson-

“At school I had a friend who was so cheerful that she was like a ray of sunshine. Especially in the morning, she was encouraging and happy with each of us. I was not known for my good humor when I first got up, nor did I understand hers.
“One day, I asked her why she was so happy in the mornings. Her reply made a lasting impression on me. She said that when she was younger, she was such a grouch in the mornings that it was unpleasant to be around her. One day, her mother took her aside and told her that her future husband and children would be very miserable unless she changed her behavior. She was really shocked by that.
“Not wanting to inflict her bad humor on her future family, she decided to change. Every morning for months, she forced herself to get up and pretend to be cheerful. It was hard at first. It took all the discipline she had. But after a while, she no longer had to pretend.
“I decided that I too would try. It was hard, but after a few months I found that I could wake up happy and cheerful. Now I am a young married woman, and I can see the difference my attitude makes in the spiritual atmosphere in our home.”
• How could this young woman’s initial attitude have decreased spirituality in a home?
• How did she change?